UAE to enforce expat health test

New health test regulations have been introduced for expatriates who wish to travel to work in the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE Ministry of Health has decreed that new, tougher, tests must be introduced to further protect the health of its citizens.

Under the new rules expats will be immediately tested upon entering the UAE, before they are given a residence visa. The UAE government are concerned that without such tests expats from certain countries could bring contagious diseases and viruses with them, as Mahmoud Fikri, assistant undersecretary of health, explained: “of late it has been noticed that the rates of contagious diseases increased among some categories coming from some countries in which there are higher rates of these contagious diseases.”

Without stringent tests as soon as people enter the country there is a chance that disease could slip in, which is a risk the UAE authorities are unwilling to allow.